New West Network

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National Park Budget

The National Park Service will test a complex new system for comparing and evaluating parks this year, with the hopes of using it to help determine the 2008 fiscal-year budget. The “park scorecard” will use 33 efficiency and performance metrics to rank parks into four efficiency categories, according to a Park Service memo released by the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility or PEER.

The Park Service says the new system will give superintendents the data and tools they need to justify budgets and will add transparency to management decisions. In a press release earlier this week, PEER berated the scorecard system as overly complicated “bureaucratic pretzel making” and the product of poor leadership in the Park Service.

The scorecard is one of many tools being developed to make the park service better at business management and could play a role in determining how to meet President Bush's request for $100 million to be shaved off the Park Service budget. National Park Service spokeswoman Elaine Sevy said the scorecard allows park managers to prove their efficiency on paper and better ask for additional funding where it is needed. [more]

Offshore Drilling

A bill aimed at lifting the 26-year-old moratorium on offshore natural gas development along U.S. coastlines has riled environmentalists who say the Arctic Wildlife Refuge and the Rocky Mountain Front will be next on the list. Previous attempts to lift the ban have never garnered more than 100 votes in the House. This new legislation, which the House may vote on later in May, already has 150 sponsors. [more]

Forest Service

Three conservation groups and four timber companies have allied to submit a proposal they hope to have included in Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest’s new forest plan. Their proposal would double the amount of proposed wilderness suggested in the Forest Service’s draft plan and open up 700,000 acres for timber harvest. But the heart of their plan is the forest using stewardship contracting as a way to put timber revenue to work and keep the money local. Some environmentalists, however, see "stewardship management" as just another fancy term for timber sales on public lands, and doubt the ecological motives.
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Earth Week

Three University of Montana faculty members held a press conference in front of University Hall today to rally support for the embattled Endangered Species Act. They drew a sparse crowd on a warm, rather-be-playing-frisbee Friday, but their message was clear: The ESA has been successful in rehabilitating many species, and can save more if it remains intact. [more]

Bitterroot Resort

Bitterroot Resort has requested a special use permit for creating alpine skiing, Nordic skiing and summer mountain bike areas on 1,680 acres in the Bitterroot and Lolo National Forests adjacent to developer Tom Maclay’s ranch.

The proposal was announced by the resort in a press release Tuesday afternoon and confirmed by the Bitterroot National Forest today. The request is a revision of an earlier proposal that was denied by the Forest Service because it was not allowable under the forest plan. A new forest plan is in the works and is expected to be released soon. [more]

Bringing Organics Home

When Lifeline Farms began growing and selling its natural produce from the Bitterroot Valley 25 years ago, "organic" had a slightly different connotation.

“We took our crate of food to Safeway, we had all our letters saying it was organic, and we said, ‘This is organic, do you want it? The managers looked at it and said, ‘Oh, it’s organic? Well, we’ll take it anyway,'” says Luci Brieger, who with her husband Steve Elliott runs the produce portion of Lifeline Farms, one of the oldest organic farms in Montana.

Since those early days, Brieger and Elliott have seen organics go from obscurity to a mainstream marketing boon. And now, many organic farmers, including Brieger and Elliott, feel that organic programs have lost touch with their roots in small farms and close communities by embracing corporations that ship their produce all over the world. In that spirit, 12 Missoula-area organic farms have formed a group that will offer an alternative to the USDA organic certification -- a "Homegrown" label focusing more on growing and selling food locally. [more]

Sustainable Ag

Organic has gone so mainstram it now even has its own major.

Washington State legislature has voted to fund the nation's first organic farming major, offered by Washington State University, Oregon's Capital Press reported. The state will contribute $400,000 to the WSU's Biologically Intensive and Organic Agriculture program, a part of their Center for Sustaining Agriculture and natural resources. Courses will focus on sustainable agriculture, lessening the use of costly chemicals in farming and finding niche ecological markets. [more]

Lecture

Coal bed methane projects in southeast Montana and Wyoming are on are the verge of devastating the Northern Cheyenne Reservation, tribal leader Gail Small said in a lecture at the University of Montana, Tuesday. To prevent the loss of their homeland the Cheyenne need more allies in all Montana communities and more respect from regional government she said. [more]

Coal Bed Methane

The Montana Board of Environmental Review rejected proposed rules Thursday that would have forced coal-based methane companies to re-inject wastewater into the ground, but decided that to set standards for allowable contamination levels, the AP reports. The board will wait until September to decide whether to require wastewater treatment. The board made its ruling Thursday afternoon on a petition submitted by a coalition of ranchers, landowners and environmentalists who say methane wells are contaminating irrigation streams and draining groundwater that will be needed in the future. [more]

Grizzly Decision

The Sierra Club announced Thursday the submission of 25,000 public comments opposing the federal government's plan to take Yellowstone grizzlies off of the Endangered Species list in a press conference at the University of Montana. The Sierra Club’s grizzly project manager Heidi Godwin was joined by bear researchers Chuck Jonkel and Margot Higgins, as well as a furry bear mascot, to explain why it is too early to de-list the bears.

The speakers said that while the rise of the Yellowstone grizzly population is promising, more needs to be done to expand habitat and sustain the species. [more]